


In Sickness and In Health

by welcometothenewhigh



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F, Friendship/Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-26
Updated: 2015-10-26
Packaged: 2018-04-28 07:21:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5082835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/welcometothenewhigh/pseuds/welcometothenewhigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No this is not a marriage story. Lexa is sick and her roommate is the only one there to help.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>AU where Lexa has nobody and is mainly silent until Clarke breaks down her walls</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Sickness and In Health

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a one shot. I had the idea and wanted to make it happen. Hope it's okay.
> 
> No other characters are in this except a mention of them.
> 
> Also I apologize if the format is shit.

Lexa’s whole world was spinning as she forces herself to climb the last flight of stairs. Her body fighting every movement and breath. Her dorm room was right there, she could see it! She just couldn’t get there. The last step came and Lexa breathed deeply to gather herself, when suddenly a tickle caught in her throat. Her chest began wheezing with her short intakes of air and she crashes to her knees trying to stop the violent coughing. It takes longer than she’d like to admit to get enough breath to clear the tickle, but finally she does and she’s sure she broke a mean sweat doing so. There’s the door, every step closer makes her want to drink her peppermint tea more and just lay in bed, sleeping the sickness away.  
  
She breathes slowly to keep from having another coughing fit, half-heartedly turning the key in the door while she does. Her head is so fogged she doesn’t even hear her roommates and friends’ chatter inside until she’s opening the door and leaning pathetically against it.  
  
“Lexa?” She hears her beautiful roommate, Clarke, try calling to her. They’d been bunked together for eight months now yet the only time they interacted was in this room. Lexa just grunts in response, tripping into bed. She no energy to deal with her nor her obnoxiously loud friends, Raven and Octavia. She’s surprised already they hadn’t started yelling about her deathly appearance. She wore loose sweatpants, hanging off her hips and a tight wife beater tank. She’d just come home from her time in the woods, which was her time, absolutely only her business—and though she knew something had been wrong for a while now, today was the first day of the real pain.  
  
There was rustling and voices but she paid no mind as she felt her core temperature begin to rise. Lying in bed in sweat pants and blankets weren’t helping but she also felt externally cold so that wasn’t the problem. Suddenly she felt flushed and white hot. She knew she was sweating profusely, but she also started to shake no matter the burn of her skin. Then a weight settled in next to her. Clarke.  
  
“Answer me, please. What’s wrong?” The girl was probably bent over her trying to catch her eyes but Lexa buried further into the pillow. A low moan escaped her throat and she felt a tickle again but luckily she didn’t begin coughing. “Alexandra look at me!” Lexa grunted more in response but begrudgingly started turning to face her roommate. She felt tears slip from her eyes due to the pain in her lungs and a migraine now forming. Clarke grabbed her face in one hand and gently lifted Lexa’s head, meeting the back of her palm with her forehead. “Fuck Lex! You’re on fire. You have a crazy fever—I—I need to get your temperature down!” There was a waver in her voice but Lexa hardly noticed as the girl eagerly lifted her from her warm bed, bridal style and started walking somewhere way too fast for her comfort. Somewhere in her head she knew what was happening. It was the same part that was screaming, ABORT! ABORT! Because she was in Clarke’s arms. Her stunning, sweet, intelligent, funny, blonde, strawberry-scented Clarke.  
  
So badly Lexa wanted to get out of the situation and run but god, she was so physically weak. She resigned herself to Clarke, lowering her head into the crook of her neck. Just as she got comfy and found herself twirling some pale hair between her fingers, she was set down on the cold tile floor of the shared dorm bathroom. She cringed internally but was too busy missing Clarke’s warmth to do anything other than whine quietly and pout. Immediately she felt the girl’s distinctly soft lips on her head and sighed.  
  
“I know Lex. Sshh, I need to get you in the shower. Please sit up for me babe. Let me take care of you.” Lexa barely had time to think about blushing before Clarke hugged her into her chest, pulling her to sit up because really, she was making no effort to do so. As she sat up though and took in a breath, another damn tickle caught and she knew it was a bad one. She shoved herself away from Clarke, holding her hand between them so the blonde didn’t get closer and catch her germs. Violent hacks spasmed in her ribcage, hurting so badly and making her too breathless to catch up. After about 25 seconds of unbearable constrictive pain, inward wheezing and trying desperately to breathe she felt everything get cold and Clarke’s voice was gone. As was the light. The lack of air rendered her unconscious and she was more than grateful to let go to the peaceful nothingness.  
***  
  
“Lexa?” She asked, trying to think of a reason her roommate would be relying on their door for support and looking like she’d just rose from the dead. Clarke simply got an unintelligent grumble in response and just knew something was wrong. Lexa had never been sick or outwardly ignored her, even if they didn’t talk much. That kind, quiet, mysterious trait is what made Clarke fall so hard for the girl. Of course she never got to act on that, considering she was always out with her friends or had exams to be taken. Then Lexa was always studying, sleeping or just not there. Clarke never asked where she went when she’d be gone for a day or two, trusting Lexa knew what she was doing and the girl never seemed to bring back trouble anyway. She’d wait for the green eyed brunette to open up on her own, as long as it took, even if 8 months is a stretch.  
  
The most they spoke was when Clarke came home at 2a.m. once—shitfaced, crying and begging Lexa to console her. To her surprise her silent roommate did. She simply got out of bed and laid in Clarke’s, holding her until she calmed and fell asleep in her arms. The next morning Lexa acted as if it hadn’t even happened and Clarke was furious. She remembers pushing her roommate into a wall and yelling until her voice broke about how Lexa was such a robot and hated everyone. She’d just stood there, taking Clarke’s wrath with a straight face and calm eyes, before replying ‘not everyone, not you.’ Then left on one her 48 hour adventures. When she came home, she once again acted like nothing happened and fine—so did Clarke. Since then though, Clarke fell harder every day despite hardly sharing a word.  
  
Now, as Lexa huffed and practically fell into her bed, Clarke was there in an instant. “Get out guys please, now!” She snapped to her friends, not taking her eyes off Lexa. The girl was coated in sweat yet her whole body shook and shivered. Clarke felt her heart clenching and beating faster at their proximity but also at seeing the beautiful, strong girl so vulnerable. She leaned over trying to get a good look at her face but her roommate seemed dead set on trying to sleep whatever this is off. “Answer me, please. What’s wrong?” The girl kept her head down but Clarke could hear her labored breathing and sniffles.  
  
If Lexa was just crying she’d have left well off alone, but being upset didn’t make someone shiver and sweat all at once. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right, even for a cold. “Alexandra, look at me!” She pleaded. A huge sigh of relief came past her lips when Lexa groaned and poked her face up, trying with trembling muscles to lift her head. Her breath caught when she saw miserable, green, teary eyes looking back at her, but she pushed on. She quickly took the girl’s face in her hand and checked her for a fever with the other. “Fuck Lex! You’re on fire. You have a crazy fever—I—I need to get your temperature down!” Clarke knew her voice was full of worry and fear. She also knew Lexa was well past 100+ degrees in her fever and needed a hospital but right now she needed to be cooled down.  
Without a second thought she pulled Lexa up and into her arms. It took a second to situate the taller girl but her adrenaline was kicking in and soon enough she was practically sprinting down the hall holding her roommate.  
  
Her heart hammered in her chest in adoration from feeling Lexa’s shallow breaths on her neck and seeing the way she gently played with her hair. It physically pained her to set her down again, apparently for Lexa too as she whimpered in response and reached for her lazily. She felt a surge of affection and decided to act on it for the very first time, leaning in to kiss Lexa’s head slowly.  
  
“I know Lex.” The girl pouted her full lips more. “Sshh, I need to get you in the shower. Please sit up for me babe.” She surprised herself by saying that but continued in a soft voice. “Let me take care of you.” Clarke reached for her now to pull her up, as she stayed slumped into the wall. Just when she began to lift her, the girl took a loud wheezy breath and seemed to start choking on it. Clarke froze in fear and Lexa shot back out of her grip, holding a strong hand between them even though Clarke just wanted to hold her even more. She was now coughing so hard it sounded like she was hacking up a fucking lung and Clarke was terrified.  
  
After what seemed like way too long for Lexa to be coughing, her roommate’s body fell limp and she just crashed back into the tile floor. Clarke went into full panic mode—she began screaming for help and within seconds other kid’s came flying into the bathroom with wide eyes.  
  
“Call an ambulance! Call 911 now!” She ordered to the crowd of spectators. Clarke was holding Lexa flush against her and that’s exactly how the paramedics found them not five minutes later. The whole way to the hospital she held Lexa’s hand tight in hers refusing to let go for a second, all the while answering basic questions she somehow knew answers too.  
***  
  
The first thing Lexa see’s when she wakes up is a familiar blonde mess of hair asleep on her own arms, resting on the side of her bed. She smiled immediately at the hazy memory of Clarke calling her babe and trying to take care of her. Lexa was without a doubt in love with her roommate. It hadn’t taken long for her to see how special Clarke was. The girl was so kind all the time, to anyone. She was an art major despite knowing her mother begged her to go into pre-med and she loved everyone and everything.  
  
The outspoken blonde didn’t even seem to mind her stoic, silent roommate and that was what made Lexa love her. She didn’t have to speak to the girl to convey feelings or anything. She just liked to listen to Clarke when she’d come back to the room rambling on the phone about her day, while of course Lexa studied and pretended to not listen. Lexa liked to think they had that understanding, especially after a few months ago when Clarke handed her her ass for not caring about anything. Once Lexa admitted she cared about her; the girl never gave her trouble again, just continued in their simple, quiet co-existence and Lexa fell harder.  
  
Of course she wasn’t dumb though, Clarke was straighter than an arrow so Lexa never bothered. It worked out just fine until she heard the word ‘babe’ fall from Clarke’s lips in her husky, worried voice and now that was all Lexa could hear. Even lying in a hospital bed with machines beeping and Clarke’s light breathing she could hear the worry that etched itself into Clarke. Lexa took a few deep breaths as she managed to sit up and found that she felt perfectly fine. There was no wheezy little sound when she inhaled and the pain of expanding her lungs had disappeared. If she wasn’t attached to an IV she’d up and leave. How long had it been? She thought.  
  
Clarke stirred next to her and that’s when Lexa realized it’d been longer than she thought. There was a bag of half folded, strewn clothes next to the blonde in her chair and she knew then that Clarke stayed with her here the whole time. Her heart swelled and ached, knowing she must have worried her roommate and also for the fact she really hoped the girl hadn’t blown off school just to be by her side. The thought made Lexa nervous and she tried to wake her friend.  
  
“Clarke?” She rasped. Her voice was so tiny it surprised her. She began humming a tune in her head, one she didn’t quite recognize—and felt her vocal chords shake in her throat. She cleared it once before trying again. “Hey, Clarke?” It was a little louder now, but no less raspy and low. The blonde stirred more and Lexa couldn’t help but reach to touch her. She swiped some pale hair out of her face and saw how exhausted Clarke looked.  
  
There were bags under her swollen, red eyes and she breathed shallowly. Lexa was so upset that she did this to her she wanted to cry now too. “Clarke. Wake up.” She demanded in her small voice, grabbing the blonde’s hand and squeezing it. The girl’s head shot up and she looked around the room abruptly, trying to locate the voice. When she finally looked to Lexa who was sitting up now and staring patiently at her, a huge grin crossed her lips and made it to her eyes.  
  
“Oh Lexa!” She squealed, jumping onto the bed and hurling herself around her. She pulled back quickly and scanned Lexa for injury but smiled bigger when she noticed Lexa grinning at her. Lexa’s heart had gone from calm to berserk in the second it took Clarke to gather her in her arms. She could totally get used to this, not that she can, but she could.  
“Hi Clarke.” She blushed, she had only said the girl’s name twice before to her face and she saw the surprise in her bright blue eyes. Clarke leaned into to hug her again slower and gentler this time, burying her face in Lexa’s neck.  
  
“Lexa.” She breathed, so full of tenderness it made her shudder. Feeling Clarke’s hot breath on her neck sent her into a tizzy and she just held around her roommate’s body, keeping her from leaving.  
“How long has it been?” Lexa asked warily. She was scared the girl would tell her like a month or maybe 6 months, she really had no idea. Clarke shuffled in the embrace, turning her head to look at Lexa and she brought a hand up to her jaw. Lexa froze but kept eye contact nonetheless.  
  
“Ten days Lexa. You’ve been out for ten days.” She buried her face again and yep, Lexa could really get used to it. “You almost died.” Then she heard before she felt, Clarke sobbing and then the tears started drenching her. She couldn’t care less though because as soon as she’d heard ‘you almost died’ she was shell shocked. What had even gotten her so sick? How was it gone now?  
  
“Clarke. I didn’t die, it’s okay.” She starts, giving a light squeeze to her bawling roommate. “Do you know what I was sick with? Did the doctors say anything to you?” She was so lost and even scared that it was going to be something serious. That’s when she noticed the rest of the room was empty, no other chairs or any flowers, no cards. Her heart hurt, but she suppressed it. She knew why there was nobody there. She had nobody. Her whole family was dead, even her ex-girlfriend. That’s why she went into the woods, she’d lay on the graves of her family and pretend she wasn’t alone in this world. Yet here in her barren hospital room, there was no doubt she was.  
  
“Pneumonia. You had pneumonia Lex and you almost died from it. When the ambulance brought you in they made me wait in the waiting room and fuck—I wanted to kill someone because they weren’t telling me anything! Nothing Lexa. They weren’t allowed because nobody was here to sign your forms and I’m not family. Finally after the first 5 days and me being here for each one they told me.” She quieted her cries, wiping her tears with Lexa’s help and continued. “Why is nobody here for you Lex?” She asked sullenly.  
  
Lexa swallowed hard. She didn’t want Clarke to know how alone she was, how she literally didn’t have a single living family member but she had no choice. The girl had been here the whole time with her simply because nobody relieved her of the duty. “I don’t have anyone, Clarke. There was nobody to call is why.” She brushed back her own tear, watching Clarke nod slowly in understanding. “You can go now if you want, since I’m up.” Lexa had let her arms drop from Clarke now, despite her heart begging her not to. The blonde simply looked at her again and actually laughed. A light, breathy laugh mixed with a scoff and she stared Lexa down.  
  
“You have another thing coming if you think I’m leaving.” She situated herself deeper into Lexa’s side and laid her head on her shoulder. “I wouldn’t leave when security told me to, I wouldn’t leave when Rae and O came by telling me it was pointless to stay next to an unconscious person and I’m not leaving now just because you’re awake, Lexa.” She sighed contently as she nuzzled in closer to Lexa’s neck and she couldn’t help but stroke Clarke’s hair and smile faintly in return.  
  
“You said no to security?” Lexa joked, trying to imagine her short roommate screaming at security and fighting to stay in the room. She giggled at the image and felt Clarke’s smile against her skin.  
“Of course I did. Those jokers thought I needed to go because I wasn’t family. Fuck them.” She looked up to Lexa then, concern in her eyes. “You really don’t have anybody? Can I ask what happened?” Her voice was quiet and Lexa almost strained to hear it. Her heart beat faster at the thought of telling her.  
  
“They—my mother, father, uncle, my sister and my girlfriend were killed. We were in an accident junior year of high school.” She stuttered on her words, feeling the air leave her lungs as she pictured the wreck for the billionth time. Her parent’s mangled bodies, her uncle Gustus and sister and girlfriend trapped. Anya had screamed at her to get out since she was able to free her seatbelt and she did. The last face she saw was Costia, twisting in her seat to get out and yelling for Lexa—just before a gas leak caught fire and the trail blazed its way to the car. Lexa was on the side of the road on her knees crying hysterically as it exploded in slow motion in front of her.  
  
It was like it happened yesterday and Lexa found herself shaking now as she retold the events to Clarke, who listened with wide teary eyes. She took Lexa’s hand in hers and pressed it to her lips, kissing it slowly as Lexa finished.  
  
“Lexa…I—I’m sorry for you. I had no idea.” She breathed out between small kisses to each of her knuckles. Lexa was trembling but felt good about finally saying it aloud. After almost two years of mostly silence, she had finally told someone and she sighed in relief.  
  
“Please don’t be. I’ve never told anyone so you couldn’t know. It was a freak accident and now—now I’m alone, but I’m good at it.” Lexa felt Clarke’s intake of breath and then felt Clarke leaning over to straddle her lap until she was on top and face to face with her.  
  
“You are not alone. I’m here now and I’m not ever leaving Lex. I promise you that.” Then she leaned in, slow enough for Lexa to recoil but it was even slower in her mind because she couldn’t believe this was happening.  
  
Clarke’s lips met hers so softly and gently she almost moaned, but suppressed it enough to just hum into her mouth. She felt Clarke digging her fingers deep into her long curly hair and pulling her closer. Lexa’s mind was reeling but she let her arms wrap around Clarke’s waist to hold her tight and she felt Clarke smile and lean her head against hers. Their eyes held so much unspoken love for each other it was plain to see now, they were meant to be.  
  
The kiss was breathless and timeless and everything she’d ever hoped for. She believed the promise Clarke made and knew her life was going to change now that she had her. It was like her life was on standby until this moment and now she was ready to live again, with Clarke by her side.


End file.
